Houlihan Lokey Advises DPE on the Sale of VTU

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that funds advised by Deutsche Private Equity Management III GmbH (DPE), a leading growth investor in the DACH region, have sold their stake in VTU Group (VTU), an Austrian engineering solutions provider for the life sciences and green transition industries in Europe, to Altor Funds (Altor) for an undisclosed sum. The transaction closed 4 April 2023.

Founded in 1990 in Graz, Austria, VTU is a leading process engineering company servicing blue-chip customers in the life sciences and green transition industries. The company offers a comprehensive engineering and value-added solutions portfolio covering the whole engineering, procurement, construction management, and validation (EPCM(V)) value chain for its longstanding, blue-chip customers. VTU represents one of the few scalable, end-to-end engineering solutions platforms in Europe and holds strong positions in key European markets complemented by 36 locations. VTU’s management team members, who are DPE’s co-shareholders, are reinvesting alongside Altor as part of the transaction.

Under the leadership of VTU’s management team, the company has evolved from a hidden champion with a focus on Austria and Germany, to a European leader in life sciences and green transition engineering. As such, VTU has increased its revenues by approximately 160% during DPE’s five-year investment period, while completing three strategic add-on acquisitions to complete its service portfolio. The company’s workforce, which consists of 80% highly qualified engineers, has increased from approximately 400 employees at DPE’s entry to about 1,200 employees currently.

Dr. Friedrich Fröschl, CEO at VTU, said: “We are very proud that we have managed to scale VTU into one of Europe’s leading engineering solutions platforms. We very much look forward to the next stage of growth with our prospective shareholder Altor, and at the same time want to thank DPE for the successful partnership over the past five years, which enabled this strong growth for the company, while keeping true to VTU’s core values.”

Guido Prehn, Managing Partner at DPE, added: “Since our investment into VTU in early 2018, the company has generated double-digit annual growth and significantly expanded its international footprint and value chain coverage. It has been a fantastic partnership with VTU’s management team.”

Fabian Rücker, Partner at DPE added: “VTU is an excellent example of how private equity can help businesses scale significantly while remaining independent and preserving their corporate culture.”

Houlihan Lokey served as DPE's M&A advisor.